Project Summary: The overall objective of this application is to develop an integrated biomedical-computing infrastructure incorporating audiologic, otologic and genetic patient data that will meet the needs of investigators pursuing patient-oriented pediatric hearing research. As the largest pediatric health-care network in the United States, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is uniquely positioned to develop a computational infrastructure for patient data acquired through screening and comprehensive evaluation of pediatric patients with congenital, early-onset, progressive and acquired forms of hearing loss. In the first phase of the application (R21), the overall approach required for building a biomedical-computing infrastructure will be determined. Subsequently, a proof-of-concept query of the database containing a limited critical set of data from existing audiologic and genetic databases at CHOP will be demonstrated. In the second (R33) phase of the application, we will expand the database to incorporate biomedical characteristics data and genetic material from a large patient cohort, and develop a web-based interface for scientific inquiry of the database in a manner that ensures anonymity of patient information.